Cycling in the wet...

first the good news, you can't aquaplane you'd need to hit motorway speeds at the min.

bad news is road tires being so thin don't grip that well, so one needs to be sensible.

but on the whole if you don't mind the wet the bike should be fine, brakes are the worse really.

yep - get out there and find what speed feels right for you

Try this test on a bit of wet road:-

Stand next to the bike and angle it over towards you. Them push, like you're trying to get it to slip away from you; you'll be surprised how steep an angle and how hard you have to push to make the tyres slip! :P

Knobbly tyres are fitted to MTB's to give you grip in mud, not for grip on tarmac in the wet.

You'll probably have more grip on thin slick-tread road tyres than you would on knobbly MTB tryes because there's more rubber actually touching the road and you haven't got the knobbles squirming.

On the other hand, you're riding a roadbike which is doubtless much twitchier (i.e. responsive !) than your heavy MTB and has those narrow drop handlebars, so it'll feel less stable until you get used to it, wet or dry.

As others have said, avoid painted white lines and metal manhole covers as they're very slippery when wet.

And you will have less grip generally in the wet than the dry so don't lean it so much, don't brake so hard. This applies to the roads generally at this time of year as there's a lot of crap and mud and so on washed onto the roads and so there's less grip than there will be come Summer.

I disagree strongly with using less front brake and more back brake - if you're going to lock-up a wheel it will likely be the back one, particularly when descending as your weight will be transferred more to the front.

Brake smoothly and early rather than sharply and late and if you're descending push your weight back a bit so you have more weight on the back to reduce the chances of locking the back.

Similarly when climbing out of the saddle, you may spin the back wheel if you have your weight too far forward, so you need to keep it back for traction but be careful that you don't unweight the front so much that you lift the front wheel by pulling on the bars
- but if you've MTB'd a lot, these are skills you should have anyway

I'm running conti ultra 23s- no probs in the wet. like all above are saying tread on a bike tyre only really matters off-road. The only time I've come off through loss of grip was starting off on a hybrid fitted with those ridiculous slick in the middle, tractor tread on the outside things. lean into a corner grip, lean grip, lean a bit further - nothing.

You will be fine. It is not necessary to use lower pressures, allthough this will help with grip. My advice is to choose the correct tyre. I have found that the Continental GP 4000 S tyres grip very well in the wet, even with maximum pressure. They are also very fast and well protected against punctures. They are the top bollocks man, try them.
Just be carefull if you happen to ride on icy roads with road tires. I fractured my face a year ago, doing that.
Now, I ride a cyclocross bike with studded tires in Finland during the winter time. The roads here are extremely icy and I can tell you that riding on these conditions takes some getting used to, but eventually it is not that big of a deal. You just need to be more careful in the first couple of rides, and eventually you will get an idea of how much you can push yourself/your bike without falling/crashing. :shock: